Author: Press Room

The Cook Islands has signed a “comprehensive strategic partnership” agreement with China without disclosing the contents with New Zealand prior to ratification.Cook Islands Foreign Minister Tingika Elikana confirmed to RNZ on Saturday morning the deal with China had been signed.While the agreement has been long-signalled, the manner in which it is being concluded, as well as the specifics of its contents, have concerned Wellington.Prior to signing, Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown said he was aware of the strong interest in the outcomes of his visit to China.Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Foreign Minister Winston Peters released a statement saying New…

Auckland police have arrested a man wanted for allegedly performing an indecent act directed towards a young student last week. The incident took place in Epsom, near Gladwin Rd, on Wednesday afternoon. Police made the arrest yesterday after receiving information from the public who recognised a wanted grey car, according to Detective Senior Sergeant Mark Greaves. The 32-year-old man has been charged with two counts of indecent act and is due in the Auckland District Court on Wednesday, February 19.”Police wish to thank the public for their help,” Greaves said. Earlier the girl’s father told the New Zealand Herald that…

Higher-growth and aggressive KiwiSaver funds have delivered strong returns in recent times, but there’s a warning they’re not for everyone.Morningstar’s latest data shows that “aggressive” KiwiSaver funds returned 19% on average over the past year, compared to 13.4% for default options, 15% for growth and 7.4% for conservative.Aggressive funds take the most risk, often with about 95% or more of their money invested in growth assets such as shares.That means they can be much more volatile than a fund that spreads its allocation across other things, like fixed interest investments, but should deliver more returns over time.Founder of Kernel Dean…

An Australian mining giant has surrendered all but one of its prospecting and exploration permits in New Zealand.A spokeswoman for MBIE confirmed Mineralogy International Limited – owned by controversial mining magnate Clive Palmer – applied to surrender 15 of its 16 permits around the country last December.The permits allowed the company to carry out prospecting and exploration for a mix of gold and other minerals – mainly lithium and rare earth elements – and covered about 225,000 hectares in Northland, Waikato, Canterbury and the West Coast.Conservation land was included in the permits.New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals, the government agency that…

Gisborne students are turning down their Government-supplied free lunches out of frustration at a lack of variety in the meals.Principals say uneaten lunches are piling up with “more leftovers than ever before”.They are also raising concerns about the nutritional value and portion sizes of the ready-made meals.Adding to the frustration, staff are spending valuable time dealing with excessive plastic packaging.Concerns over quality and nutritionGisborne Girls’ High School principal Jan Kumar said serving sizes were small and the meals lacked variety.“Our lunches arrive on time and they are hot, but the quality of what is offered is not great,” she said.Last…

A lucky paddleboarder had a close encounter with a pod of orcas, including two extremely curious youngsters, off the Kāpiti coast yesterday. Graeme Stevens was paddling off the coast when he spotted the pod. He lingered back to give them some space when he described two young ones coming over to “check him out”. In the video one of the orcas swims over to Stevens before turning on its side to get a better look at him, it then shows off its tail by jumping out of the water. Two of the young orcas curiously checking out paddleboarder Graeme Stevens.…

It was all just a joke.A set up that made Levi Hawken and his mates laugh, riotously.Its maybe too far to say the joke backfired, but it changed Levi’s life forever and he didn’t love all of it.He’s the “Nek Minnit” guy, going viral back in 2011 in a big way – at the time, the saying was everywhere. Hawken said of the time: “I didn’t really know that it was going to get that big. I think by the time I realized it was sort of like how do you control this?”The saying is no longer yelled at him…

An initiative to divert millions of plastic and metal lids and caps from landfill is expanding into Wellington.Foodstuffs in partnership with the Packaging Forum are establishing collection sites at 11 New World and Pak N’ Save supermarkets across the region.They would join Earthlink Lower Hutt, Sustainability Trust Wellington and Otaihanga Zero Waste Kapiti as collection points for caps and lids in the Wellington region.Since its launch in September, the Caps and Lids Recycling Scheme has diverted about four tonnes of caps and lids from landfill.Wellington joins Auckland, Tauranga and Christchurch, in the programme which now has about 50 drop-off points…

This article was originally published in Polish US Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth has lauded Poland as a “model NATO ally” in his first visit to Warsaw on Friday, where he met with President Andrzej Duda and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz. ADVERTISEMENTPete Hegseth made his first bilateral state visit as US Defence Secretary on Friday, meeting with Polish President Andrez Duda and Deputy Prime Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz in Warsaw.“It’s quite intentional that our first European bilateral (visit) is right here in Poland,” Hegseth said after the meeting.“We see Poland as the model ally on the continent,…

Nine helicopters and 45 firefighters are fighting a scrub fire in Canterbury that has closed a section of SH7.Fire and Emergency New Zealand said it received multiple calls just after 2.30pm for the fire that has taken blaze on SH7 in the Island Hills. When it arrived the fire was 300m to 300m in size and firefighters are now working to extinguish it.FENZ said the fire is “currently not contained” at this stage.”We have evacuated nearby properties as a precaution.”SH7 near Island Hills in Canterbury is closed due to a scrub fire. (Source: Facebook: NZTA)New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi…